Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-06-27
HUNTING FOR SOULS.
DR. TALNAGEs DISCOURSE TO HIS PEOPLE
YESTERDAY.
A Powerful and Effective Sermon Delivered in The
Great Preachers Characteristic Manner
The Pull Text Of the
Morning Lecture
Special Telegram to the Register.

Rev. Il. DdWltt Ialmage, D.D., Is pastor,
have gone to the country for the summer,
but still the great thrOngs of people that
for eighteen years have been seen in and
around Brooklyn Tabernacle on Sabbath
days. are found there. 1t is estimated that
about three hundred thousand strangers
have visited this church during the past
wear. The hymn sung this morning was:
salvation, o, the joyful sound!
'Tis pleasure to our ears;
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears
DIR. Talmage's text was: ''He was
mighty hunter before the Lord.-Genesis:
K. 8. He said:
In our day, hunting is sport; but in
the lends and the times invested with wild
beasts, it was matter Of life or death with
the people. 1t was very different from
going out on a sunshiny afternoon with
patent breech-lOader, to shoot Teed-birds
on the flats, when Pollux and Achilles and
Diomedes went out to clear the land OF
lions and tigers and bears. My text sets
forth NimrOd as hero when it presents
him with broad shoulders and shaggy ap-
parel and sun-brOwned face, and arm
punched with muscle-'a mighty hunter
before the Lord" think he used the
bow and the arrow, with great success
practicing archery.
| have thought that if it is such grand
thing and such brave thing to clear wild
beasts out of country, if it Is not better
and Drawer thing to hunt down and
destroy those great evils Of society
that are stalking the land with fiery eye
and bloody paw, and sharp tusk and quick
spring. l have wondered if there Is not
such a thing as gospel hunting, by which
those who have been flying from the truth
NAV he captured for God and heaven. The
Lord Jesus in His sermon used the art OF
angling for an illustration when He said:
~ will make you fishers OF men," And
80 | think have authority for using hunt
ing as an illustration of gospel truth; and
l pray God that there may be many man
in this congregation who shall begin to
study gospel archery, OF whom II may,
after a while, be said: He was mighty
hunter before the Lord"
How much
AWKWARD CHRISTIAN WORK
there is done in the world! How many
good people there are who drive souls
away from Christ instead Of bringing them
10 Him! Religious blunderers who upset
more than they right. Their gun has a
crooked barrel, and kicks rs it goes OIL.
They are like clumsy comrade who goes
along with Skilful hunters; Mt the very
moment ne ought to be most quiet he is
cracking an alder or falling over a log
and frightening away the game. How few
Christian people have ever learned the les
son of which read at the beginning OF the
service, how that the Lord Jesus Christ at
the well went from talking about cup Of
| water to the most practical religious truths,
which won the wOman's soul for God!
Jesus in the wilderness was breaking bread
| to the people l think it was good bread;
it was very light bread, and the yeast had
done its work thoroughly, Christ, after
he had broken the bread, said TO the peO-
pie: Beware of the yeast, or OF the leaV-
en-, of the Phariseesw So natural trans
ition it was; and how easily they all un-
derstOod how to fasten the truths of God
and religion TO the souls Of men. Truman
Osborne, one of the evangelists who went
! through this country some years ago, had
a wonderful art in the right direction. He
came to my fathers home one day, and
while we were all seated in the room he
said: ''Mr. Talmage, are all your children
Christians?" My father said: "HeS, all
but De Witt" Then Truman Osborne
looked down into the fireplace, and began
to tell a story of a storm that came on the
mountains, and all the sheep were in the
| = i - N
perished in the storm. Had he looked me
in the eye should have been angered
when he told me that story; but he looked
into the fireplace, and it was so pathetical-
ly and beautifully done that | never found
any peace until was sure was inside the
fold where the other sheep are.
THE ARCHERs OF OLD TIMES
studied their art. They were very precise
in the matter. The old books gave special
directions as 10 how the archer should 20,
and as to what an archer should do. He
must stand erect and firm, his left foot a
little in advance of his right foot. With
his left hand he must take hold of the bow
/ in the middle, and then with the three fin
gers and the Thumb of his right hand he
| should lay hold of the arrow and aftix it to
| the string-sO precise was the direction
given. But how clumsy We are about re-
ligious work! How little skill and care
we exercise! How often our arrows miss
the mark Oh, that we might learn the
art of doing good and BECOME mighty
hunters before the LordF'
In the first place, if you want to be ef-
fectual in doing good, you must be very
sure of your weapon. There was some
thing very fascinating about the archery Of
olden times. Perhaps you do not know
| wnat they could do with the bow and ar
row. Why the chief battles fought by the
English Plantagenets were with the long
bow. They would take the arrow
of polished wood, and feather it
with the plume of bird, and then it
| would fiy from the boY-string of plated
silk. The broad fields of AginGourt, and
solway Moss, and AeYille's Cross, heard
the loud thrum of the srcher's bOw-string.
Now, my Christian friends, we have a
mightier weapon than that. 1t is the ar
row of the Gospel; it is q sharp arrow; it
is a straight arrow; it is feathered from
the wing of the dove Of Gods Spirit; it
flies from bow made out of the wood Of
the cross. As far as can estimate or cal
c4late, It has brought down four hundred
millioH sOGls. Pagl knew how to bring
the notch of that arrow on 10 that how
string, and its whirr was heard through
the Corinthian theatres, and through the
court room, until the knees OF Felix knocked
together. 1t was that arrow that stuck in
Lutheris heart when he cried out: ''0h,
my sins! Oh, my sinStN II it strikes a
man in the head, it kills bis skepticisn; IT
it strikes him in the heel, it will turn his
STEP il it strikes him in the heart, he
throws up his hands, as did one Of old
when wounded in the battle, crying. ooh,
Galilean, Thou hast conquered"
| In the armOry of the Earl OF Pembroke,
| there Sre old eorslets which show that the
arrow of the EnSi,::eelha used TO go through
tie breastplate, through the body Of the
warrior, sni CT. through the hackPlate.
What
A SYMBOL OF THAT GOSPEL
which is sharper than a two-edged sword.
piercing to the dividing asunder of soul
sa@ body, and Of the joints and marrows!
Would to God Es had more faith in that
Gospel! The humblest man il this house,
if he had enough faith in him, could bring
hundred souls to Jesus-perhaps five